The Psychology of Conformity: Why We Follow the Crowd
- teresa wang
- Feb 8
- 4 min read
The Psychology and Reasoning:
Conformity is known to be a social theory that is often covered in many Psychology courses in our education. The Cambridge dictionary defines this term to be “the behaviour that follows the usual standards that are expected by a group or society”. This is essentially caused by social norms as humans have the need to feel included and accepted kindly. It is our human nature to feel this way and this is also the cause of how people tend to exclude those who are “different” to themselves as they often do not conform to their standards. Our standards are built from a foundation of those who surround us, such as looking towards friends for guidance or unconsciously behaving similar to them. Some classic examples that are related to conformity are fashion trends, peer pressure, or even something as simple as staying quiet in the library as that is what is to be expected.
Types of Conformity:
Currently, there are three types of conformity which consists of: Compliance, Internalisation, and Identification. As mentioned above, Compliance is when we follow along with the majority of those who surround us, even if we may not agree with their behaviour or thoughts privately. Internalisation is when we are placed in a situation where we are unsure how to behave and look to others to observe their behaviour, helping us to understand how to behave in this unknown circumstance. However, this does not mean that we are superficially agreeing with the majority and our attitude becomes consistent instead. Identification is similar to compliance in a sense that our behaviour and beliefs begin to differ when we are in a certain group, meaning that this is often temporary. Our want to be within a group adapts us to their beliefs and values to fit in.
Real Examples from History:
From the famous 2000s movie, ‘Mean Girls’, where the audience sees the slow transformation of the main character’s identity. To the real life systematic genocide of Jewish people, the holocaust, we are surrounded by examples of conformity from both entertainment, daily lives and historical events. As mentioned, the holocaust is one of the most well-known examples of conformity as anti-Semitic beliefs were normalised from propaganda along with social acceptance. Of course, there is so much more to the case of the holocaust such as the pressure of authority or deindividuation, which is the loss of one’s identity caused by uniforms as that individual is now only identified through their pieces of clothing. However, the aspect of conformity is difficult to overshadow in this circumstance as it was such a significant factor towards the behaviour caused by the Nazi regime.
Another interesting case to consider is the Salem Witch trials throughout 1692 to 1693 when 20 were murdered after being accused of witchcraft due to mass hysteria. This widespread paranoia meant that very little would question the accusation, therefore leading towards the deaths based on very little evidence as the fear spread quite rapidly. The social pressure that was supported through witch hunts were also a large factor towards why so many conformed to these expectations and thoughts. Essentially, the Salem Witch trials illustrate a real life example of how our irrational behaviour may lead towards injustice when fear overrides reason. Other examples in our history that relate towards our psychology of conformity are the Jonestown Massacre and The Red Scare.
Why it is important for us to understand:
It’s difficult to ignore noticing how conformity is in our everyday lives once you start noticing it. From how you act in certain environments or noticing how the ones around you act differently depending on who or what they are around. Such as acting differently within your home compared to your school or workplace. More generally, how we act in public as most of us follow social norms and expectations, whether it is social politeness or the law itself. The list can go on with how conformity is in our everyday lives, and that does not always mean it is a good thing. Yes, it may maintain less chaos or behavioural expectations, however conformity often leads to people losing individuality as they want to fit in with those around them, we suppress our beliefs and ideas. More extremely, polarisation which is defined to be “the division of two sharply contrasting groups or sets of opinions and beliefs”. Political contexts are the perfect examples of polarisation and are most often caused by like-minded peers which leads to becoming more extreme in their views due to a lack of exposure to diverse opinions.
How we can overcome this in our daily lives:
Simple methods to overcome this in our daily lives as best we can is to be self-aware of course and to recognise how our beliefs and thoughts may be biased based off of those around us and our environment and be self-aware while questioning your own reasoning behind your thoughts. Not only this, however, being around those with diverse opinions and perspectives opens a world of new ideas that to a certain extent will help you discover what your opinion is and why. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to overcome all aspects of conformity and you should not feel the need to do so. Not only is it too common in our everyday lives to truly overcome, however not all forms of conformity should be perceived negatively as there have been positive examples from conformity.
https://ozanvarol.com/dangers-of-conformity/#:~:text=Conformity brought us the Jonestown,now-infamous Stanford prison experiment.
https://www.nesl.edu/blog/detail/a-true-legal-horror-story-the-laws-leading-to-the-salem-witch-trials#:~:text=Evidencepoints to several factors,Town%2C and the simmering tensions
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